


Harry is a Horcrux!

by ErikaP113



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Original Work
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Drabble, F/M, Harry Potter - Freeform, Other, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates, Spoilers, Words
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-15
Updated: 2019-03-15
Packaged: 2019-11-18 15:22:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18122978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ErikaP113/pseuds/ErikaP113
Summary: In a world where the words you first hear your soulmate say is written on your arm, Ashley is born with one of the biggest spoilers printed on her arm... Harry is a Horcrux





	Harry is a Horcrux!

_Oh shit, Harry was a Horcrux!_

In a world where the first words you hear from the mouth of your soulmate is printed permanently on your arm, these were the words Ashley ended up with. No one knew who Harry was or what _horcrux_ meant. It was 1995 and everyone was stumped.

It was only in 2005 when things cleared up a bit.

Ashley was ten years old, happily doing her homework, when her aunt burst into the house screaming, “I know what a Horcrux is!”. It took her parents ages to calm her down enough to explain.

“So you know Harry Potter right?” She started. And, of course everyone knew Harry Potter, except maybe her grandmother. Her deaf and mostly blind grandmother, who cared only about Wednesday night bingo and making cookies. Now, Ashley herself didn’t really care for it all that much. It was fascinating in the way that all magic was to her, but the movies were too long for her to really sit through at her age. But now, her ears were perked, ready to learn what the weird words embedded on her arm meant.

“Well apparently, a horcrux is something they bring up in the newest book. Thomas was talking about it at work. He read all about it in the new book. It's this thing Voldemort uses to hide pieces of his soul in so he can't die.”

There followed a debate into the details of it (no one in her family was really all that into the fantastical world of wizardry at the time). It was all a bit much for her, so Ashley assured herself that her parents were taking care of it and continued about her homework.

She only really understood what it was after having read the book herself at around the age of fourteen. It was still a bit of a foreign concept, the whole idea of murder splitting the soul, but she got the general gist of it. The older she got, the more she wanted to know about her soulmate. She developed an intense fascination with the Harry Potter universe that soon transcended her worries about soulmates. At first it had been about finding her soulmate. Now it was all about the magic.

She loved it. The ideas, the books, the movies. She fell in love with the world and the characters and the spells. Much like many other kids her age, she also wanted to go to Hogwarts and be a witch. She wanted a wand and a patronus. She read and reread the books over and over again. She watched the movies countless times.

By the time she graduated high school, she was a virtual expert.

At first, she’d been enamoured with the idea of a soulmate, but the older she got, the angrier she became. Why couldn’t she have sweet words like the other girls her age? Some of her friends had things like _I’ve been looking for you_ and _Those must be the prettiest clouds I’ve ever seen_. Most people carried around those generic kinds of words that came with first meetings. _Hello, my name is…_ or _Hi, can I have your number?_ But no, not her. Her arm carried the modern world’s biggest spoiler engraved for everyone to see.

_Harry was a Horcrux._

She never got to have that brilliant realisation of the entire thing along with everyone else. Nope. Not her. She knew long before anyone else. She tried to keep it from everyone, in the spirit of good geekmanship, but only managed to get so far. It was on her arm after all, out there for the world to see. The best she could hope for was that her friends found out through the books or movie first or, alternatively, didn't mind the knowledge of one of history's best plot twists.

In 2011, when Ashley was 16 years old, the final movie was released, the one she knew contained the spoilers. But to her dismay, no one uttered those fateful words. Every time she geared up to watch the movie in the vicinity of strangers, she tensed up, expecting to hear those six little words.

Years passed, and nothing happened. She graduated high school. She met other people equally as obsessed with Harry Potter and his world. But no one’s first words matched.

She was getting anxious. Did she somehow miss hearing them? Did the words get lost in the crowd for her ears to pick up but go unnoticed by her mind? What if her soulmate had died in some tragic accident years before and never lived to see the movie or read the book that would inspire the exclamation?

But then the marathon happened. Her university geek group (as her sister had lovingly dubbed it) hosted a Harry Potter Movie Marathon weekend. The club was big. Around a hundred people showed up for the event, all decked out in their House paraphernalia.

And then the big reveal came where Harry realised, he was the seventh and last Horcrux… and nothing. No one said the words. A lot of words were said, but not the ones she was waiting for.

Ashley relaxed and settled back in to enjoy the last moments of the movie.

The movie marathon finished and people streamed out to leave.

Ashley was waiting for a friend who had forgotten something when two boys passed her.

“That was intense man.” The first said. Ashley paid them no mind. She was scanning the thinning crowd for any sight of her friend.

“I can’t believe you’ve never seen Harry Potter.” The second’s words registered in the recesses of her mind. Her brain perked and she could have sworn her ears twitched. _This is it. One of them is about to say it._

She tensed and held her breath, waiting for the moment the words were released into the air. _What am I going to say back?_ She panicked. What did one reply to the first words uttered in your vicinity by your soulmate?

But, again, nothing happened. They guys passed out of earshot discussing who was worse, Voldemort or Umbridge? Disappointment surged through her at the same time as the thought _Umbridge, of_ course. She had been so sure.

She spotted her friend and waved her over.

As she dropped her hand, she heard it, “Oh shit, Harry was a Horcrux!”. Ashley froze. Her friend, who apparently also heard the words, stopped dead.

“You are never going to get over that, are you?” Someone laughed.

Ashley couldn’t move. No way. She wasn’t prepared. Where was the warning? That ultimate, inherent knowledge everyone claimed to have had of the moment they would meet their soulmate. “ _A part of me had known it would be him the moment I set my eyes on him_ ”. That and other variations of the same thing was a common element to just about every story she'd heard of how people met their soulmates.

And why wouldn’t you know? Would one not immediately recognise the other half to one’s soul?

Seems not.

“No!” that first voice replied, shock and indignation so clearly expressed in his voice. “How are you so calm about this?”

And the spell was broken. She yanked around to confront her new-found soulmate.

Dave was one of the long-time members of the geek group. They had known each other since first year. And by _known each other_ she meant they knew each other’s names and could mostly recognise each other's faces and that was about it.

Apparently, Dave had brought a friend. Apparently, he’d felt the need to share the wonders of wizardry with someone unfamiliar with it. And it just so happens to be the exact person Ashley had a soul-bond with.

Ashley met the eyes of her stranger-soulmate, but his eyes darted away in nonrecognition. That’s when she realised that he didn’t know yet. She had yet to say anything he could hear. He didn't know her yet.

 _What do I say? What do I say? What do I say?_ Her mind was in a flat-spin. She came up blank. But then her mouth took over. Her mouth ran on a mind of its own most of the time. Whatever came into her head, her mouth took the liberty of making public and then some. She said things before she even knew she’d thought them.

“You! It’s you!”

The dude stopped dead. He was still only a moment before he frantically pulled at his sleeve. And there, written on his skin, were the words she’d just spoken.

When their eyes met for the second time, she saw wonder in his. “That is not how I imagined this going.”

**Author's Note:**

> This is just a drabble inspired by a random prompt found on tumblr. Thanks to users dondaario and littlelions101 for unknowingly spawning this


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